When I proceeded to the Caucasus a few weeks after my return from attending the coronation of the Emperor Alexander III. At Moscow last year, I had no intention whatever of writing a book of travels. However, the interest which some letters about the Oil Fountains at Baku, appearing in the columns of the Morning Post, excited in various quarters, caused me to investigate more fully the Petroleum industry, and the result is now before the reader. If he be connected with the Petro leum trade, the data may be of value to him; if, on the other hand, he desires to know what Russia is doing in the Caspian, he may share with me the deep interest I feel in the Kerosine factor of the Central Asian problem.